UScellular provided additional answers to questions posed by the FCC in December on the carrier’s proposed sale of wireless assets to T-Mobile (see 2412270031). But all the data was redacted from the filing, posted Friday in docket 24-286. The carrier said the data submitted is “'Highly Confidential' pursuant to the Protective Order in this proceeding.”
The FCC posted Friday a notice of inquiry on alternatives to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT), approved by commissioners 4-0 Thursday (see 2503270042). “Relying on GPS alone as the primary source of PNT data leaves America exposed to a single point of failure and leaves our PNT system open to disruption or manipulation by adversaries,” the notice says.
The FCC Wireline Bureau on Friday approved a fiber deal proposed last year by T-Mobile, a venture with private equity firm EQT to buy fiber-to-the-home provider Lumos (see 2404250047). T-Mobile said it would invest $950 million for a 50% stake in the joint venture. “We find, upon consideration of the record, that a grant of the Application will serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity,” the bureau said. “The proposed transaction will not result in a reduction of competition.” Lumos provides telecom and other services to “more than 300,000 homes and businesses across Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina,” the order said.
Bobby Barker’s retirement from the FCC was not pursuant to the Voluntary Early Retirement Authority policy (see 2503270063).
Consumers' Research Executive Director Will Hild expressed confidence after the U.S. Supreme Court heard the group’s challenge of the USF contribution factor in lengthy oral arguments Wednesday (see 2503260061).
Telecom carriers are under pressure from the FCC to end their diversity, equity and inclusion programs, with Chairman Brendan Carr saying last week that the FCC won’t bless mergers by companies that have DEI policies in place. Carr sent a warning letter Friday to Disney on its DEI programs. Industry officials say companies have no choice to comply, though the FCC moves have created regulatory uncertainty. T-Mobile explained in a letter to the FCC how it’s getting rid of DEI.
A White House executive order issued Thursday ends federal employee union bargaining rights at a host of federal agencies, including the FCC, citing national security concerns. Laws that allow for collective bargaining enable “hostile Federal unions to obstruct agency management. This is dangerous in agencies with national security responsibilities,” said a White House fact sheet on the order.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced retirements, including: Carr’s longtime confidential assistant Drema Johnson; Wireline Bureau: Victoria Goldberg (22 years of service), Al Lewis (19), Todd Mitchell (30), Suzanne Yelen, Sue McNeil, Terri Natoli, Ted Burmeister (25); Public Safety Bureau: Nikki McGinnis (20), Rochelle Cohen; Wireless Bureau: Kevin Holmes; Enforcement Bureau: David Strickland (25), Jeremy Marcus (23), Jane Kelly, Kimberly Cook (24), Greg Hermes (25), Luke Kessinger, Brian Wondrack (24); Media Bureau: Bobby Baker (50), Dale Bickel (41), Radhika Karmarkar, Karen Kosar (42), Raelynn Remy (30), Gary Schonman (40); Space Bureau: Kal Krautkramer (34); Office of International Affairs: Francis Gutierrez (25), Sumita Mukhoty (30), Larry Olson (62).
Pointing to possible further limits on C-band capacity in the U.S., Eutelsat is seeking U.S. market access for its Brazil-licensed Eutelsat 65 West A geostationary orbit satellite as an alternate way of serving U.S. customers. In an FCC Space Bureau application posted Thursday, Eutelsat said it wants to make use of the satellite -- launched in 2016 -- to receive uplinks in the 6725-7025 MHz band from U.S. earth stations and to downlink those transmissions in the 4500-4800 MHz band to a single earth station in Pittsburgh. The FCC commissioners in February approved an upper C-band notice of inquiry looking at ways of freeing up spectrum there for new services (see 2502270042).
A bipartisan group of former FCC commissioners have condemned the agency’s news distortion proceeding against CBS in joint comments posted Thursday. “These comments are submitted to emphasize the unprecedented nature of this news distortion proceeding, and to express our strong concern” that the FCC “may be seeking to censor the news media in a manner antithetical to the First Amendment,” said the letter from former Chairmen Alfred Sikes and Tom Wheeler and former Commissioners Gloria Tristani, Rachelle Chong and Ervin Duggan. Sikes and Chong are Republicans, while Chong, Duggan and Tristani are Democrats. The signatories “served under both Republican and Democratic leadership, and from that experienced perspective, express deep concern about the breadth of the content regulation authority asserted by this proceeding.” If the FCC doesn’t act to close the proceeding, it would suggest “that the Commission has been transformed into a tool of White House-driven speech suppression.” In response to a request for comment, the FCC repeated a statement from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr declining to end the proceeding, which it previously issued after a similar request from conservative groups (see 2503210060).